A study is proposed which will investigate changes in reading comprehension and retention that occur with age. Previous research on paired-associate and serial learning has indicated that the elderly perform less well than young adults on such tasks. However, when mediators have been supplied, the older adults' retention has improved significantly. The proposed study would compare the performance of elderly adults with that of young adults using meaningful verbal materials. An attempt will be made to improve deficient reading comprehension and retention through an instructional device, the advance organizer, which has been shown to aid the performance of poor reading children. It is believed that at least part of older adults' difficulties in remembering prose matrial may be due to insufficient encoding of information into memory. The conceptual framework provided by the advance organizer is expected to enhance the encoding of the older subjects during reading, resulting in improved recall of information from the reading passages. Understanding and retention of the passage will be tested immediately following the passage and after a 1-week delay period.